Each spring all 23,000-plus UC Berkeley undergraduates
(not just a sample group) are asked to take the online
UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, and every other
year the entire UC system’s 150,000-plus students
are asked to complete the survey. Only limited enrollment/second-degree
students and students under 18 are excluded.

The survey begins with a core group of questions — about
family background, educational and social experience
at Cal. Respondents are also assigned randomly to
complete one of five modules — on academic
engagement, civic engagement, student development,
student services, and a “wild card” topic
chosen by each UC campus. Berkeley’s 2007 wild
card topic was diversity.

At UC Berkeley, the Office of Student Research (OSR)
administers UCUES — which, unlike other national
higher-ed surveys, includes all class levels, freshmen
through seniors, as well as transfer students. Each
year OSR gives out $4,000 to $5,000 worth of prizes,
by lottery, to respondents, with a grand prize of
$1,000. In 2007, 11,957 out of 23,278 spring-semester
Berkeley undergrads (51.4%) took the survey.